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ps14.6
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1993-03-24
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EXPOSITION.
Notwithstanding their real cowardice, the wicked put on
the lion's skin and lord it over the Lord's poor ones. Though
fools themselves, they mock at the truly wise as if the folly
were on their side; but this is what might be expected, for how
should brutish minds appreciate excellence, and how can those who
have owl's eyes admire the sun? The special point and butt of
their jest seems to be the confidence of the godly in their Lord.
What can your God do for you now? Who is that God who can deliver
out of our hand? Where is the reward of all your praying and
beseeching? Taunting questions of this sort they thrust into the
faces of weak but gracious souls, and tempt them to feel ashamed
of their refuge. Let us not be laughed out of our confidence by
them, let us scorn their scorning and defy their jeers; we shall
need to wait but a little, and then the Lord our refuge will
avenge his own elect and ease himself of his adversaries, who
once made so light of him and of his people.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 6.--"_Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor,
because the Lord is his refuge_." In the fifty-third Psalm it is,
"Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them." Of
course, the allusion is totally different in each; in this Psalm
it is the indignant remonstrance of the Psalmist with "the
workers of iniquity" for undervaluing and putting God's poor to
shame; the other affirms the final shame and confusion of the
ungodly, and the contempt in which the Lord holds them. In either
case it sweetly illustrates God's care of his poor, not merely
the poor in spirit, but literally the poor and lowly ones, the
oppressed and the injured. It is this character of God which is
so conspicuously delineated in his word. We may look through all
the Shasters and Vedas of the Hindoo, the Koran of the Mahometan,
the legislation of the Greek, and the code of the Roman, aye, and
the Talmud of the Jew, the bitterest of all; and not in one
single line or page shall we find a vestige or trace of that
tenderness, compassion, or sympathy for the wrongs, and
oppressions, and trials, and sorrows of God's poor, which the
Christian's Bible evidences in almost every page.--^Barton
Bouchier.
Verse 6.--"_Ye have shamed_." Every fool that saith in
his heart there is no God, hath out of the same quiver a bolt to
shoot at goodness. Barren Michal hath too many sons, who, like
their mother, jeer at holy David.--^John Trapp.
Verse 6.--"_Ye have shamed_," saith he, "_the counsel of
the poor_." There is nothing that wicked men do so despise as the
making God a refuge--nothing which they scorn in their hearts
like it. "They shame it," saith he, "It is a thing to be cast out
of all consideration. The wise man trusts in his wisdom, the
strong man in his strength, the rich man in his riches; but this
trusting in God is the foolishest thing in the world." The
reasons of it are--1. They know not God; and it is a foolish
thing to trust one knows not whom. 2. They are enemies to God,
and God is their enemy; and they account it a foolish thing to
trust their enemy. 3. They know not the way of God's assistance
and help. And--4. They seek for such help, such assistance, such
supplies as God will not give; to be delivered, to serve their
lusts; to be preserved, to execute their rage, filthiness, and
folly. They have no other design or end of these things; and God
will give none of them. And it is a foolish thing in any man to
trust God to be preserved in sin. It is true their folly is their
wisdom, considering their state and condition. It is a folly to
trust in God to live in sin, and despise the counsel of the
poor.--^John Owen.
Verse 6.--"_Ye have made a mock of the counsel of the
poor_:" and why? "_because the Lord is his trust_." This is the
very true cause, whatsoever other pretences there be. Whence
observe this doctrine; that true godliness is that which breeds
the quarrel between God's children and the wicked. Ungodly men
may say what they list, as, namely, that they hate and dislike
them for that they are proud and saucy in meddling with their
betters; for that they are so scornful and disdainful towards
their neighbours; for that they are malcontent, and turbulent,
and I know not what; but the true reason is yielded by the Lord
in this place, to wit, because they make him their stay and their
confidence, and will not depend upon lying vanities as the men of
the world do.--^John Dod.
Verse 6.--"_The Lord is his refuge_."--Be persuaded
actually to hide yourselves with Jesus Christ. To have a
hiding-place and not to use it, is as bad as to want one; fly to
Christ; run into the holes of this Rock.--^Ralph Robinson, 1656.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 6.--The wisdom of making the Lord our
refuge.--^John Owen.
Verse 6.--Describe I. The poor man here intended. II. His
counsel. III. His reproach. IV. His refuge.
Verse 6.--Trust in God, a theme for mockery to fools
only. Show its wisdom.